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This Too Shall Pass

By Niki Turner

This too shall pass.

That phrase got me through the fourth grade, and I'm relying on it yet again in mid-life.

Back in 1979 I was sick with the flu during Christmas break. The illness kept me home from school for more than a week when the new semester started. I don't think I've ever been so sick. (Well, until I had the flu again as an adult.)

When I finally made it back to school in mid-January, I discovered all the desks had been rearranged into friendly little foursomes. I roamed the classroom, searching in vain for my name tag. I finally found my desk, shoved against the wall at the back of the room. Apparently, my teacher assumed I wasn't coming back. Gee. Thanks.

To top it off, the girls I was friends with had deemed me a pariah during a slumber party. No one was speaking to me. Because girls are mean.

It wasn't my best year...

The year of the worst school picture ever.

The first (and last) "F" I ever got on a paper.

The year I learned correcting your teacher's spelling errors on the blackboard in class is not a good way to get into her good graces.

I spent recesses that spring bouncing a tennis ball off the brick wall of the school building, alone.

On one particularly wretched day I heard a voice, as though someone were standing behind me, whisper, "This too shall pass."

How comforted I was by those words! I repeated them over and over, a mantra for my 9-year-old soul. Years later, when I'd learned to discern the voice of the Lord, I realized just Who had spoken those words to me, and I was thankful all over again.

Recently, I looked it up, now that we have "the Internet machine" (as my son calls it) to research these things. To my surprise, the phrase, which I cannot ever remember hearing before that moment on the playground, is an ancient proverb, appearing in Persian, Jewish, and Turkish folklore, used to humble kings and lift up the afflicted.

It comes back to me every so often, when I'm struggling to accept a season of life, or when I need to be reminded to rejoice in the here and now.

What is going on in your life right now that you need to take heed to these words?

Niki Turner is a novelist, journalist, blogger, and the production manager for theRio Blanco Herald Timesweekly newspaper, one of the oldest continuously operating newspapers in Colorado. Her first completed manuscript earned second place in the Touched By Love 2009 contemporary category romance contest. She also blogs atwww.nikiturner.net.

Niki is a Colorado native who grew up in Glenwood Springs—home of the world’s largest hot springs pool. She married her high school sweetheart 25 years ago. They have four children, four grandchildren, and two West Highland White Terriers.

In 2014, she published “Sadie’s Gift” as one of the Christmas Traditions novella collection with eight other authors. The Skiing Suitor, one of the Love’s Sporting Chance series published by Forget-Me-Not Romances, released in August 2015. Her most recent project, “Santiago Sol,” was published by Pelican Book Group as part of the Passport to Romance novella collection. She’s currently working on a new novella for Whitefire Publishing, one for Barbour House, and four for Forget-Me-Not Romances.

Comments

Ironically, Niki, just yesterday, my mind was stuck in a playback loop of a really rough time of my life when I was in third grade. At my age, you'd think I'd be long over it -- if only because so much gray matter has disappeared over the years.

The picture of the clouds reminds me of something I heard a few years back about the story of Jesus and his disciples on the stormy sea.

Jesus knew a storm was coming. He could have said, "Hey, guys. A storm is coming. Let's take the boat out tomorrow." But he didn't. He let them get in the boat -- and then he got in the boat with them. And their faith was strengthened because they saw the power of God over the storm.

Sometimes God lets us get in the boat even when a storm is coming, but he always gets in it with us.

Oh that's funny, C.J. Who would have thought that those incidents in childhood were so profound? Sometimes I fear I would be one of the disciples wailing, "we're all gonna die!" in the bottom of the boat. Thank goodness Jesus didn't throw the doubters overboard.

It's so true that this truth can uplift and encourage, but also humble us. What is given can be taken away. What is lost can be found. Just because something is different doesn't mean it won't be just as good.

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